You’ve gotta try the lasagna!
Hold me back!
With school starting I wanted a filling, comfort-food-friendly, delicious dinner to start our new week off and our new road ahead. (Plus Lenny’s parents would be heading out on their long road trip home so I wanted to impress them with one more crockpot mania meal before they left.)The crockpot lady had a yummy looking lasagna posted- looked good and cheap enough so I made a trip to Target. (Can you tell that I make trips to Target just about every day? Insane I know. But it is my ME time. Some people get manicures, I go to Target.)
Spent maybe $10.00 on the things I needed to make this. I like to use Italian sausage for my spaghetti and lasagna (if I am not making meatballs). It was on sale, so even better. The crockpot lady did a layer of fresh spinach in her lasagna. So I did that too. How smart is that? (Garrett, did not even notice it! Sneaky way to work in some veggies for very picky eaters. After he cleaned his plate I asked him how he liked the spinach and he was shocked he had eaten it without knowing it.) The crockpot lady suggested adding a layer of hard boiled eggs to add some protein… could not go there, but I did whisk in two eggs to the ricotta cheese. Figured it does not matter how you add the eggs- protein is protein, right?
One funny thing I will share with you about me and lasagna. I never can keep my layering in order. Too many moving parts for me. What I mean by this is, all the recipes go in order- sauce, then noddles, then meat, then cheese, etc., repeat. It makes me laugh. I never have enough focus to stay on track- I have so many distractions… usually at least one kid handing from my leg and a baby hanging from my… well, you get the idea. So sometimes, my lasagna has a layer of noodles, then another layer of noddles, then finally some sauce or whatever. Change a diaper, wash my hands, the phone is ringing, oh what was I doing… making lasagna. But, no one seems to notice. And they trust me to operate a motor vehicle… with children inside no less. And my lasagna turns out just fine. I think it is something you can not mess up- especially if everyone is hungry enough.
I also tossed up a salad- the one I do with the olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. Pretty healthy and really yummy. (Just take romaine lettuce, black olives [you can add feta cheese too, but I did not this time] and then drizzle on some EVOO and red wine vinegar. So cheap and everyone eats it.
For dessert I made a deliciously fattening chocolate chip brownie pie from Homemade Gourmet. These desserts are impressive. You buy their packet of goodness- add a few ingredients (it is always things you have on hand like eggs and butter) and pop it in the over…. dessert is done and everything thinks you spent all day making it.
In the end, we had an absolutely scrumptious dinner. Everyone really liked it all- and once again, we all agreed that crockpots are impressive. My mother-in-law promised to replace her broken crock stone and start making some crockpot madness!
Full bellies and tomorrow we start a new school year. Our boys are getting so big!